DYING DARFUR: SUDAN GENOCIDE SUBJECT OF NEW DVD, BOOK

By Peter Kupfer

NEW YORK, 2 April 2008  Everyone knows that
something terrible is happening in Darfur, but few of us grasp the extent
of the horror unfolding in that remote corner of Africa or the forces that
have caused it. If you watch The Devil Came on Horseback, Annie
Sundberg and Ricki Stern's searing documentary, you will know and you will
never forget.

The tragedy of Darfur is viewed through the eyes of Brian Steidle, a
former Marine Corps captain who takes a job to monitor a cease-fire in
Sudan's 20-year civil war between the Arab-run government in the north and
the predominantly Christian and Animist south. As an observer with
the African Union, Steidle finds himself witness to the ruthless and
systematic destruction of black African villages by government-sponsored
Arab militias called Janjaweed - Arabic for "devil on horseback"
- in the Darfur region of western Sudan.

The Devil Came On Horseback (2007)

The filmmakers draw upon hundreds of photographs and home movies
Steidle smuggled out of Sudan, intercut with interviews and video footage
obtained from renegade sources, to paint a haunting picture of Darfur's
descent into hell. Sundberg and Stern don't shy away from showing the
grisly aftermath of the Janjaweed's attacks - charred skeletons of
children who were burned alive, mutilated bodies with eyes gouged out and
ears slashed off, a bloody tire and axe apparently used to hack people to
death. Yet, to their credit, they are judicious in their use of these
gruesome images; they make their point without beating the viewer over the
head or resorting to lurid sensationalism.

Some may question why the filmmakers chose to tell their story through
the eyes of a Westerner. Is that not, in itself, a form of racism? I think
not. Assuming that the point of the film is to educate people in the West
about what is happening in Darfur, using an American observer to tell the
story makes sense, particularly one who is as articulate and sympathetic
as Steidle.

What makes his story especially compelling is that Steidle is no
bleeding heart liberal. He's a veteran military man from a family with a
long tradition of military service, and he's accustomed to seeing death
and destruction at close range. Indeed, Steidle's motivation for taking
the job in Sudan was that it promised the action and adventure his desk
job in Washington lacked. So when he describes his anger and outrage at
the genocidal slaughter in Darfur it carries more weight than if the story
were being told by a political activist or professional "do-gooder."

It doesn't take Steidle long to realize that what he is witnessing was
no ordinary conflict, but a systematic campaign to annihilate what the
Sudanese government viewed as a lesser race. "There is no gray area.
People are being killed because they are African, not Arab," he says. He
describes his encounters with the Janjaweed in stark terms: they are
"evil, evil people. They smile and shake your hand but you can see it in
their eyes. It's like seeing the devil."

One of the most moving scenes in the film shows Steidle describing the
futility he felt about being powerless to stem the violence he was
witnessing. "We stood there for six months and watched people die â€¦ and
I took pictures of them," he says. "I feel guilty â€¦ for not sticking my
knife in the general's neck that's burning villages." The camera lingers
on Steidle's face for several moments as he struggles to maintain his
composure. Finally he turns away from the camera, buries his face in his
hands and begins to cry.

The filmmakers deftly weave Steidle's pictures and observations with
historical information about the region and the forces that conspired to
create the current crisis. The statistics are chilling enough: since the
crisis in Darfur began in 2003, 400,000 have died, nearly 3 million have
been forced from their homes, and hundreds of thousands of others live in
constant fear of the next Janjaweed attack. Sundberg and Stern provide
sufficient information for viewers to understand the context of the
conflict without overwhelming them with a deluge of mind-numbing details.

The filmmakers make a clear case that the Janjaweed are the instruments
of the Arab-controlled government in Khartoum. The attacks often follow
the same pattern: first the government turns off the cell phone towers so
the villagers cannot call for help, then the Sudanese air force attacks
with planes and helicopters, and finally the Janjaweed descend on
horseback, killing, raping, and looting everything in their path before
setting fire to the villages. In an interview, an Arab militiaman recalls
the slogan the government instructed him to use during the attacks: "Kill
the slaves! Kill the slaves!"

A little-known fact that emerges in the film is the role that China has
played in the conflict. China provides much of the capital and expertise
for Sudan's expanding oil industry and purchases 80 percent of the oil it
produces. Profits from that partnership, the filmmakers assert, are
largely financing the war in Darfur.

One could argue, I suppose, that The Devil Came on Horseback
is one-sided. With the exception of a few clips of the Sudanese ambassador
to the United Nations defending his government's actions, little attempt
is made to present Khartoum's position. But when it comes to genocide can
there ever be two sides of the story? By that standard one could argue
that a documentary about the Holocaust or the Killing Fields would be
incomplete without presenting the views of Hitler or Pol Pot.

The film chronicles Steidle's transformation from neutral observer to
passionate advocate for the victims of genocide. After leaving Sudan he
shared his photos with Nicholas Kristof of TheNew York
Times and other journalists, testified before the International
Criminal Court in The Hague, and even met briefly with U.S. Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice. But the slaughter in Darfur continues unabated,
and Steidle cannot conceal his bitter disappointment. "I thought if the
people of America could see what I've seen there would be troops here in a
week," he says. "I was naive. They've seen it now and they've done
nothing."

When an interviewer asks him how it feels to be a whistle-blower,
Steidle is clearly taken aback. "I'm not a whistle-blower," he protests.
"I'm just a guy who tried to wake up the conscience of a bunch of people."

Another powerful primer on the crisis in Darfur is contained in
Darfur: Twenty Years of War and Genocide in Sudan, a collection
of photographs and writings published by Powerhouse Books. The book
approaches the subject with a wider lens than TheDevil Came
on Horseback, documenting the history of the people in the region and
their long struggle against not only the Janjaweed but famine and disease.

It is a handsome volume, if one can ever describe heart-rending images
of sick and starving refugees as handsome. One of the more haunting
pictures shows the dark, nubby head of a young boy protruding from a
soiled white blanket covered with flies.

There are stirring words as well. Documentary photographer Colin Finlay
describes his arrival in Ajep, in southern Sudan, with appropriately spare
eloquence: "I stepped off a small prop plane and fell into another world
â€¦ Over the edge of reality, the edge of sanity, the edge of
civilization, I found a gaping hole filled with people the world no longer
wanted."

Peter Kupfer is a former editor on the National /
Foreign desk at The San Francisco Chronicle. His freelance articles on the
arts, travel and technology have appeared in The Washington Post, The Los
Angeles Times, Asian Art News and other publications. He last wrote on
Dining Out inCharleston, South CarolinaforCulturekiosque.com

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